The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Web-counselling may trigger ‘agent’ network

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Thursday, Jun 25, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Web-counselling may trigger ‘agent’ network

Rural students likely to be exploited

‘Guidance’ by middlemen for a fee doing rounds at Internet cafes, rural colleges
Teachers favour mock counselling sessions as practice prior to web-counselling

HYDERABAD: The web-counselling proposed by the government for engineering admissions is opening space for middlemen to fleece money from students in rural areas in the name of guidance.

Though the government is yet to issue the notification, the process has infused tension among students on the authenticity of adopted procedure apart from creating confusion and this is driving them to Internet centres and some rural colleges where students are being assured of “guidance” on payment of fee ranging from Rs. 500 to Rs. 1,000.

Worried lot

Rural students say this is definitely big money for them but they are also worried over the influence of colleges on these middlemen in putting them on the top of students’ options. Similarly, they can be misled on the courses that are not filled in those colleges. Such misdeeds were reported last year when the second phase of admissions were done through web-counselling.

“I have noticed a few cases last year where students were misled,” says S.V. Suryanarayana, Director, Swarna Bharathi Institute of Science and Technology, Khammam. Senior teachers like him fear that rural students who are confused about the process are likely to be exploited by these middlemen. Interestingly, among the 2.42 lakh students qualified for engineering admissions this year, a majority are new to usage of computers and Internet.

Credence

To create awareness among students and parents, teachers suggest that mock counselling facility should be made available so that they can practice and get tuned to actual web-counselling.

Creating such a facility is not big task and it can be hosted on the websites of universities and the APSCHE.

This will not only drive away confusion but give more credence to the web-counselling concept itself.

Parents suggest that the APSCHE should conduct a few mock counselling sessions involving all the students before taking up actual web-counselling.

Guidance at helpline centres being thought of by officials may not actually serve the purpose as candidates’ number is vast.

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